Call On Me
by DarkBalance
Summary: Although Tomoki wasn't falling over himself like Junpei or pretending to be cool or tough like Kouji and Takuya, he did like when he was the one with Izumi's attention.


**prompt:** #48 crush **  
wordcount:** 2,805  
 **posted:** October 5, 2016

 _This story was written for two challenges: The 28 Days of Love Challenge and the Pairing Diversity Boot Camp. This is a one-shot, so it's complete as-is. Please do not forget to leave me a review at the bottom of the page, I hope you all enjoy reading!_

* * *

Tomoki had always thought Izumi was pretty. She had long shiny hair and her eyes sparkled every time she smiled. Of course, Tomoki had been too busy following Takuya around to appreciate Izumi's prettiness. That, and being eight-years-old, he hardly cared.

Even though Tomoki wasn't falling over himself like Junpei or pretending to be cool or tough like Kouji and Takuya, he did like when he was the one with Izumi's attention. He also really liked when her smiles were aimed only at him.

000

When Tomoki was ten, Izumi called him for the first time. He didn't get a lot of phone calls, just Takuya or Junpei when they wanted to hang out, sometimes from Hatsuharu and Teppei too. Tomoki didn't even think the twins or Izumi had his number, but there he was, with Izumi's voice on the other end of the phone line.

"Tomoki, can I ask for some advice?" she had asked. Tomoki blinked. None of his friends had ever asked for his advice before.

"Uh, sure, Izumi. What's wrong?"

"I need you to be really, really honest with me, okay?"

"Okay."

"Well, you see, Kobayashi Hiraku asked me out." Izumi sounded nervous admitting so. Tomoki blinked again, and checked his phone, confused. Was she asking him for _dating_ advice? "Tomoki?"

"What did you tell him?" he ventured cautiously.

"I didn't say anything yet. I'm just not sure what to do."

"Um… Well, do you _like_ Kobayashi?"

"Of course I like him, every girl in my class does, Tomoki!" the boy frowned. He knew girls were strange, he just didn't realize that they were _this_ strange.

"Then I don't see what the problem is," Tomoki admitted flatly. "You should say yes."

"But what about Takuya?!' Izumi growled out, sounding frustrated. "I don't want to hurt his feelings, he likes me too!"

"Oh. Did Takuya ask you out too?"

"NO!"

Tomoki had to hold the phone back from his ear, Izumi screamed so loud. He just barely held back a groan. Didn't Izumi have her own friends to talk about these sorts of things? Not that Tomoki was actually complaining. He liked when he could help his friends, especially since they were so much older than he was. It didn't hurt knowing that Izumi apparently cared a lot about what Tomoki thought, considering there had to be several other people she could have talked to instead. Still, the conversation was confusing him.

"Izumi, do you like Takuya?"

There was a pause on the other side of the line before Izumi whined a very reluctant, "yes."

"So you're asking me if you should agree to go out with the boy who you like who asked you, or wait for the other boy you like who didn't?"

"Well, when you put it that way," Izumi hedged, "it sounds kind of silly, doesn't it?"

"It does," Tomoki giggled. "But I think you should go out with Kobayashi. Takuya will understand, and maybe next time _he'll_ be the one to ask you out!"

"Thanks, Tomoki, you're right." Izumi sounded a lot calmer now, and Tomoki could imagine her smiling on the other end of the line. "If it were anyone else but Takuya I wouldn't have given it a second thought. I just don't want to upset him, you know?"

"Yeah," Tomoki sighed. He could wait to deal with this dating stuff, it all sounded like a great bit headache.

000

The first time Tomoki spent three hours on the phone with a girl was when Izumi called him randomly, _not_ looking for advice. It was the first time in two years that the first words out of her mouth had been, "What have you been up to, Tomoki?"

It took an entire hour and one one almost-rude question before he realized that she _only_ wanted to talk.

Tomoki decided then that girls were super weird, even if Izumi was the most fun.

000

The first fight he had with Izumi was also when he was twelve, and started it with Izumi's typical greeting in a not-so-typical tone.

"I need you to be honest with me," Izumi sounded weary on the other end of the phone.

"About what?"

"About me and Takuya," there was the edge of a whine in her voice, but Tomoki was busy trying not to feel like he was standing in the middle of a Centalmon stampede.

"... What about you and Takuya?" he asked carefully, flinching at his nervous tone.

"I just… I don't know," Izumi sighed. "We've gone through all of this drama to get together, you know? All the fighting and dancing around one another because one of us was either too stupid or too stubborn to just say what we wanted… But I still really like him, you know?"

"So then what's wrong?" Tomoki asked, uncertain where the conversation was going to go. Izumi sighed, and Tomoki could imagine her staring off into space, searching for the right words.

"As much as I like Takuya… I just get this feeling that… maybe we were better off as friends? Like… Do we make you guys uncomfortable?" Tomoki blinked at the sudden change in tone.

"Why would you think that?" Tomoki twisted a pencil between his fingers, feeling particularly indecisive. He really didn't want to be having this conversation with Izumi.

"Just answer the question, Tomoki." Izumi told him firmly.

"Um. Not really…" he hesitated in answering.

"Really?" Izumi sounded surprised.

"Like you said, you guys have liked one another for a long time. We should all be happy you've finally been honest with -"

"Funny that you should say anything about honesty, Tomoki, considering that you're lying to me right now." Izumi's voice was cold when she spoke to him, and filled with a disappointed sort of hurt. Tomoki stayed quiet, unsure how to respond.

"I…" he tried.

"I called you because I wanted to hear the honest truth, not a watery, sugar-coated version of what you think I want to hear!" a click followed Izumi's angry declaration, and it took a moment for Tomoki's heart to calm down from the quick pace it had taken when she first accused him of lying.

It wasn't so much that Tomoki was lying to her, as much as he was just being less than honest. He really did believe they deserved to be together, as long as they fought to actually get there. He was happy that they finally just admitted their feelings to one another, or at least, he thought that he should have been. And it wasn't uncomfortable to be around Izumi and Takuya as a couple.

It was just that they fought so much! All of the time! If they weren't being so cute that it was sickening then they were at each other's throats, and _that_ was what they couldn't stand. Tomoki hated that Takuya made Izumi cry more now that they were together than he probably had in their entire friendship. He hated that Takuya had a greater tendency to punch and break things, usually after fighting with Izumi. It was like they were poisoning one another and Tomoki couldn't stand it _._

With a long-suffering sigh, Tomoki called Izumi back.

"What?" she sounded just as angry as she had seven minutes ago.

"I'm sorry for not being completely truthful." Even to himself, Tomoki sounded like a kicked puppy.

"You weren't even halfway truthful," Izumi bit out. If he thought that Izumi would forgive him for realizing he was an idiot, he was sorely mistaken.

"No, I was telling the truth, just… not actually answering the question."

"So you're going to answer the question now?"

"Yes," Tomoki sighed, then proceeded to explained to Izumi just how upsetting it was to see her and Takuya together and hurting one another even as they tried to make things work. "It will probably be best for you two to break up," Tomoki finally told her. It was a long moment before Izumi replied.

"Thank you for finally being honest with me."

Then she hung up again.

000

The first time Tomoki called Izumi for advice was when he was thirteen. He was nervous about asking Saito Chou out on a date and wanted to know the best way to do so. Izumi's answer, "Just ask her, but don't be a jerk," didn't ease Tomoki's nerves one bit, but did give him some courage. He had been blunt and honest with Izumi for years now, surely he could do so with his feelings?

000

The first time Tomoki _really_ liked a girl was a few months later. His heart beat faster than usual and he might have flushed a bit and he _definitely_ stuttered uncharacteristically as he tried to figure out _what_ in the name of Susanoomon was wrong with him. Izumi thought it was absolutely adorable; he'd been on a group date with Izumi, Kouichi, and their dates.

Tomoki couldn't understand why it hadn't been his girlfriend who made his heart turn somersaults.

000

The first time Tomoki comforted a crying girl was when he was fourteen, in his second year of middle school. He was cutting through the park on his way home from school, and he found her sitting on the edge of a fountain, crying. It had been hard to tell at first, since she would have had to go out of her way to get to this park on her way home, but there was Izumi, sitting on a fountain in a park twenty minutes away from her house, _crying._ In the five years they had been friends, Tomoki had never known Izumi to cry like this, flat-out bawling and from the sound of it, snotting.

Truth be told, Tomoki found it to be a bit frightening.

"Izumi?" he called softly, just loud enough to be heard but not startle her. Tomoki approached the fountain warily. Both Takuya and Kouichi had warned him that whenever faced with a crying girl, it was best to either be cautious or not be there at all. Izumi had advised him to be gentle. Junpei and Kouji said not to make her cry in the first place. Idly, Tomoki wondered how the guys would feel if that girl was Izumi.

"Izumi, are you okay?" Tomoki tried again. Izumi hic-ced and gazed up at him sadly. She attempted to wipe her tears and control her voice, but ultimately failed.

"T-Tom-Tomoki?"

"Yeah, it's me," Tomoki sat beside his friend, sensing that they would be there for a while. "What's wrong?" This was either the right or the exact _wrong_ question to ask, as Izumi immediately threw herself at Tomoki, her tears renewing themselves with a vengeance. For a while, she only cried, her tears managing to soak through Tomoki's school blazer and sweater. Her sobs broke his heart, stabbed at it, and Tomoki found himself hugging her not just to make the tears go away, but to make himself feel better as well. He hated seeing his fierce friend like this.

"Hiroshi broke up with me," Izumi eventually confessed through her tears. She had stopped sobbing by now, but her voice still hitched in odd places. However, Tomoki frowned at her explanation. This wasn't the first time Izumi had gone through a breakup. This wasn't the first time she had been dumped, either. Tomoki didn't think she had even cried this hard over Takuya, and certainly not in front of him. So what was confusing was that Izumi had gone to wait for him so that she could _bawl over losing a boyfriend._ Not knowing how to respond, Tomoki simply continued rubbing her back, waiting for her to expand on her explanation.

"It was horrible…" she continued quietly. "I really liked him too. Like, a lot. He always said how much he liked me as well… Why did he do that?" Tomoki could hear that Izumi was on the verge of tears again, so he held her tighter and ignored several of the emotions surging through him.

"It will be okay," Tomoki murmured, trying to calm her down.

"No, it won't, Tomoki!" Izumi growled and removed herself from Tomoki's shoulder so that she could glare at him. "He broke up with me in front of my whole class, after my friend accused him of cheating on me with some girl from another school. Hiroshi didn't even try to deny it, he just told me it's over!"

"Hiroshi's an idiot then," Tomoki declared. "But you will be okay. I'm not sure if _Hiroshi_ will survive though." Tomoki smiled then, and nudged Izumi. "I don't look like much, but Takuya's been taking me boxing. Or we can get the twins. Kouichi can be more vicious than even Kouji."

"Shut up," Izumi snorted a laugh, her eyes softening out of her glare."

"Okay, fine, how about Junpei? Granted, I don't even want to _think_ about what he'll do to someone who hurt you, but I'm absolutely not opposed."

"Tomoki!" Izumi laughed outright this time and fell back onto his shoulder. "The best part is that it's all true." The two fell into silence then, Izumi's random giggles bringing a smile to Tomoki's face even as he wondered how he could go about siccing Takuya on Izumi's ex. "Are you dating anyone?"

"Huh?" Tomoki blinked, caught off-guard. "No, not right now."

"Why not?"

"The girl I like hasn't noticed me yet." Tomoki answered honestly. He shrugged the shoulder not holding Izumi and stared at the gathering piles of snow.

"How is that even possible?" Tomoki could hear the outrage in Izumi's voice.

"She's older than me," he told her. "She has her own problems, so I'm easy to miss."

"Well of course she will, with that attitude!" Izumi scolded, sitting again so that she could beat him up. "What do you expect her to do if you don't make yourself stand out? What have I told you?" Tomoki shrugged again, unphased by her sudden change in temper. While Izumi was quick to spark, the flare was normally short-lived.

"I don't need to stand out right now. I'm happy just watching her." Tomoki stood and stretched, then offered his hand to Izumi. "Want me to walk you home?"

"You are just too cute, do you know that?" Izumi sighed. She took his proffered hand before wrapping both of her arms around his one. "And you're gonna be taller than me soon too! This just sucks, I really will be the shortest one, and not just a little bit either."

"Sure, but you have five guys willing to defend honor if you ever need it."

"You don't do violence, Tomoki."

"I will for you."

"Really?"

"I told you Takuya's been taking me boxing."

000

At some point, the pair fell into a comfortable silence. Tomoki worried for a while that Izumi was still concerning herself with that jerk she liked, but resolved that there wasn't much he could do about it now. It was a good thing, really, because Tomoki really would have gone to fight the guy if he knew where to find him. Finally, Izumi stopped, about a mile from her house.

"You know, Tomoki, any girl would be lucky to have you." Tomoki rolled his eyes. He'd heard this speech several times before. He supposed that one day, it would be nice if Izumi meant the words the way he wanted her to. "No, I mean it! You're sweet and honest and you _listen,_ and you're romantic… if you treat your girlfriend anywhere close to how you treat me, she'd be a fool to lose you."

 _I'm glad you realize that,_ he remarked mentally.

"Thanks, Izumi," Tomoki said instead. "I'll find someone to appreciate me someday. Don't worry about it." Izumi looked like she was going to punch him again, so he distracted her by asking, "No more crying over what's-his-jerk-face?"

"Probably not," Izumi admitted sadly. "I'm still hurt, but it just pisses me off now."

"Won't need the twins after all then?" Tomoki grinned. "You can kill him yourself now?"

"Damn straight. I'll do it slowly, too." Izumi flashed him one last grin before waving him off. "I can make it home from here. I'll call you later, Tomoki."


End file.
